


and the songbirds are singing like they know the score

by jessicawhitly



Category: Prodigal Son (TV 2019)
Genre: F/M, Karaoke
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-20
Updated: 2020-06-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 03:54:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,010
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24817168
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jessicawhitly/pseuds/jessicawhitly
Summary: Jessica and Gil use the team's post-case karaoke bar celebration as a way to announce their romantic relationship status.
Relationships: Gil Arroyo & Malcolm Bright, Gil Arroyo/Jessica Whitly, Malcolm Bright & Jessica Whitly, Malcolm Bright/Dani Powell
Comments: 4
Kudos: 43





	and the songbirds are singing like they know the score

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired heavily by Bellamy covering Songbird on her album and me just wanting to think about Jessica singing on the show, and then it led to the team doing karaoke which is...truly my favorite image. The Malcolm/Dani is very minor, but it was my first time writing them! Title is from Songbird by Fleetwood Mac.

Jessica is half-concentrating on a book when she hears the door open; Gil’s couch is located in a way that she can’t see him until he turns a corner, and he looks tired as he leans against the door frame. He’s still got his coat on, though his boots are off, and she offers up a small smile.

“Hey,” she says, shutting the novel and setting it aside, shifting slightly so her knees are against the back of the couch, her elbow on a pillow.

“Hey,” he returns, shrugging out of the coat and laying it over the back of a kitchen chair before coming to lean over the couch, bending to kiss her gently.

“How was your day?” she asks, studying his body language as he rounds the sofa, moving to sit beside her.

“Long. But we caught the guy,” he tells her, letting out a sigh; Jessica runs a hand through his hair, scratching at his scalp lightly. “Team wants to celebrate.”

Jessica hums, pressing her nose to his crown, and Gil shifts, pressing his lips to her collarbone.

“Come with me,” he requests, and Jessica pulls back until she can see his eyes, her own wide. They hadn’t gone out of their way to make their shift in relationship widely known; it wasn’t a secret, by any means, but it also wasn’t something they’d flaunted. In particular, Malcolm wasn’t truly aware of their romance, and her coming with him to whatever plans his team had would rip the wool directly from her son’s eyes.

“Gil…” she starts, searching his face. Part of her hesitation came from the worry that it would feel too much like she was invading space that had been previously occupied. It had taken months to feel like she wasn’t intruding when she spent time in his home- the home he’d made with Jackie- and for her carve out her own place, start to make her own roots. And she knew how important Jackie had been to everyone on his team, and her own son.

“I want you there,” he says, his thumb brushing lightly over the back of her hand. “It’s been a long few days, and I want to spend time with you.”

“Even though we’ll be around other people?” she asks, needing the confirmation, and Gil’s smile is small but warm, and he lifts his hand to cup her cheek.

“Especially because we’ll be around other people,” he confirms, and Jessica finds her cheeks flushing; she ducks her head, but Gil catches her chin in his palm, tilting her gaze back up to his, stroking his thumb over her cheekbone. “We’re happy. Let’s stop trying to hide it.”

“We haven’t been hiding,” Jessica protests, but she knows it’s weak at best. Not telling Malcolm, spending most of their dates at either her home or his- it wasn’t exactly shouting things from the rooftops. Gil’s lips quirk, pulling her gaze to them, and warmth blooms in her belly.

“We have, a little. And that’s okay- I think we needed the time, for us,” Gil says, his hand moving to brush her hair back behind her ear, his thumb moving to settle on the soft skin at the hinge of her jaw. “But I’m ready. If you are.”

Jessica’s smile softens, and her hands came to cup Gil’s face, thumbs playing with his beard before she leaned in and brushed her nose against his.

“I’m ready,” she murmurs, whispering her lips over his, feeling him smile against her. She deepens the kiss briefly, feeling herself melt against him, warmth pooling in her chest and belly. “Of course I’m ready, Gil.”

When they pull back, they’re both beaming, and Gil squeezes her hip gently.

“Well then let’s get you a karaoke outfit,” he says, and Jessica arches an eyebrow, interest filling her face. “Oh yeah. Edrisa picked what we did tonight.”

“I shall need something sparkly.”

_

Malcolm is on his second whiskey neat when Gil walks into the karaoke bar, the last of their group to arrive- but he blinks in surprise when his mother appears just behind him, dressed in a shimmery green dress with dangling earrings to match. Gil guides her to where they’re all gathered, and Malcolm stands, eyebrows furrowed.

“Mother,” he greets, and accepts her kiss to his cheek. “I didn’t realize you were joining us this evening.”

“I invited her,” Gil says, handing Jessica a tumbler of dark liquid he’d ordered for her at the bar and lifting a hand in greeting to the rest of the team as they waved back. “So, all the singing slots filled yet?”

“Oh, no, we kept your regular spot open,” Edrisa assured him, a large glass with a slice of pineapple stuck on the side. Dani snorted, rolling her eyes in amusement as she sips at her sparkling water. She leans a little closer to Malcolm, hair brushing over his shoulder.

The bar is loud, and most of the singers subpar; he spends most of his time watching everyone around him, particularly his mother and Gil. There was nothing ostentatious about their behavior by any means, and he tries to pinpoint what exactly it is that seems to have grabbed his attention.

Dani is the first of their group on stage, only slightly off-key in her rendition of Gimme, Gimme, Gimme- it feels right for her to choose the cheesy 70’s pop ballad, and by the end she’s even grinning, dancing a little on stage as she barely uses the screen for the lyrics. Malcolm’s entranced by her, feeling his heart pick up pace in his chest, and he finds himself downing the rest of his whiskey as the next performer takes the stage.

“You were- amazing,” Malcolm tells Dani as she rejoins him, breathless and grinning, JT patting her on the shoulder. She beams, taking the new club soda he’d ordered for her and downing it, cheeks pink when she sets the glass aside. “Never took you for a disco girl.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me, Bright,” Dani tells him, and his eyes trace her face, a feeling in the pit of his stomach that blossoms, crawling up his throat like vines.

Tally drags JT up on stage next, and her selection has the group of them in stitches, even his mother. We Go Together from _Grease_ blares over the speakers, and while Tally is vibrant, pregnancy glow visible even under the harsh fluorescents, JT deadpans his way through all the doo wops. Malcolm watches as his mother murmurs something in Gil’s ear, pulling a laugh from him, and his arm dips to her waist, remaining there.

He’s pulled from his thoughts by JT nudging him, and he realizes it’s his turn. Lurching out of his seat, he goes through the list of songs in his head, trying to decide what he wants to sing, and by the time he reaches the stage he knows exactly what he wants.

Unfortunately there’s no non-English songs, so with a little fiddling his phone is plugged in and a youtube video is playing on the screen. Disco pop music floods the speakers, and like riding a bike Swedish is pouring out of his mouth. Distantly, he hears JT shout in the background, and Edrisa’s high yell of excitement, and then the rest blends into the song.

“Of course you know Swedish,” is all Dani says when he retakes his seat, though there’s fondness in her voice, and she pushes another drink into his palm before she sits back in her seat. A smirk plays around her lips, and the rush in his veins has very little to do with the whiskey he shoots back. “Did you pick ABBA to copy me, or did you also blow out two Walkman listening to the Gold cassette?”

Malcolm chuckles, and pushes his hair out of his face.

“Waterloo is a classic, Dani, and I’ll have you know that Swedish is a very easy language to learn. I can give you lessons,” he offers, and that pulls a full on laugh from Dani, nose crinkling as she leans into him briefly, shaking her head.

In the time they’ve been talking, Malcolm hadn’t even realized his mother had gotten on stage, and he blinks, watching her flip through the worn binder until she tapped at a spot. He recognizes the strains of piano that begin, and interest fills his face when he sees Gil sit up a little bit straighter on his stool.

Malcolm has heard his mother sing before; remembers the soft lullabies from his childhood and Christmas carols around the holidays. So it doesn’t shock him that she knows _how_ to sing- he thinks Christine McVie would be proud of the version of Songbird being sung in the karaoke bar.

But she’s not singing it to the bar- no her gaze is solely for one occupant, sitting two bar stools down. He watches the play of emotions of Gil’s face; there’s no mask on his face, soft and relaxed as he rests against the bar, watching Jessica sing. When he flicks his eyes back to his mother, Malcolm finds the same softness in the lines around her eyes, trained on Gil and filled with warmth he hadn’t seen in years.

But it’s different, even, from the warmth he has from his memories. The way Mother was looking at Gil is nothing like how she’d looked at his father; there’s a difference in the affection, and he finds himself leaning forward, captivated by it.

It lights up the room. It’s a simple and romantic way to put it, more so than he’s inclined to usually, but its fitting- in the middle of a karaoke bar, surrounded by people, it couldn’t feel more like it’s just the two of them.

When his mother descends the stage, cheeks pink and eyes bright, Malcolm isn’t surprised by the way Gil’s hand finds her waist to pull her close, her own fingers cupping his jaw as her mouth lowers to his. He averts his eyes, the blatant affection between his mother and essential father figure foreign, though not _unpleasant_ , and Dani nudges at him from her place beside him.

“Bossman and your mom, huh?” she murmurs, but there isn’t much surprise in her voice. There’s a tenderness to it, and Malcolm looks at her, lips quirking slightly. “Kinda weird for you, I bet.”

“Unfamiliar,” he says, turning back to watch as his mother settled in the curve of Gil’s arm, tumbler back in her hands as she accepted Tally and Edrisa’s enthusiastic compliments of her singing. “But…not unexpected.”

Dani’s smile is soft when he turns to meet her gaze, and she taps the back of his hand with light fingertips, pulling her straw between her teeth.

By the time they leave the karaoke bar, Malcolm almost feels like the combination of whiskey, tiredness, and dopamine will be enough for a sleep without nightmares, and Dani’s arm is loosely hooked through his as they escape the now-overheated bar into the cool night air. JT and Tally wish them all a good night, and Edrisa ends up in a cab with them, going the same direction. Dani’s fingers squeeze his bicep, and her smile is warm at Gil and his mother as she bids them goodnight, hailing a cab of her own.

“Malcolm…” his mother starts, but he holds up his hands, cutting her off with a gentle smile.

“You can tell me all about it at brunch,” is his offering- an olive branch, of sorts. Jessica’s smile is soft, and she comes forward, a hand cupping his cheek before she leaned forward, her lips warm against his forehead before she swiped away the mark of her lipstick with a tender thumb.

“Tomorrow. Ten am,” she replies, and he nods as she steps away. Gil’s hand is just as warm against the back of his neck as his smile, and Malcolm feels something shift into alignment. “Sleep well, my love.”

And Malcolm thinks that for once, he just might.


End file.
